The rehearsal dinner is reportedly taking place at the nearby Grasmere, a 525-acre estate boasting a Federal-period manor house with formal gardens, stucco guest cottages and a large stone barn complex. Another area manse rumored to be serving the family over the weekend will be Glenburn, where the Clintons are said to be staying over the weekend. Glenburn is the Rhinebeck home of Eric and Andrea Colombel. Andrea Colombel is the daughter of billionaire financier and longtime Clinton supporter George Soros.

The price tag? Probably somewhere north of $2 million, possibly as high as $6 million. The affair is strictly off-limits, with the Clintons even asking the FAA to close local air space until 3:30 AM Sunday morning.

Chelsea's groom is Marc Mezvinsky, an investment banker and "son of former Iowa congressman Edward Mezvinsky who was convicted and served federal prison time for fraud arising from various business transactions, and former Pennsylvania congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky."

Wikipedia has this to say about Chelsea's new father-in-law:

[Edward] Mezvinsky was involved in a series of business transactions that ultimately led to his downfall. Prosecutors later would call him a one-man crime wave. In 2000, after examining his business deals since 1980, prosecutors said that they uncovered elements of fraud in nearly every one.

In March 2001, Mezvinsky was indicted and later pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 charges of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud. Nearly $10 million was involved in the crimes. Shortly after his indictment, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but the judge at his trial disallowed a mental illness defense. Mezvinsky was released from federal prison on April 11, 2008.

It's also worth noting the contrast between Chelsea's wedding and the wedding of then-First Daughter Jenna Bush to Henry Hager in May 2008. Jenna's wedding was held at the Bush Ranch in Crawford, TX, and all the trappings for the Bush family and their 200 or so guests cost around $100,000.

Come to think of it, there are a lot of interesting contrasts between Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush. Chelsea graduated from Stanford University in 2001 and received her Masters in International Relations from Oxford University. She was immediately hired by the prestigious business management consulting firm McKinsey and Company (which normally hires only top MBA graduates) and then went to work for for Avenue Capital Group, a Manhattan hedge fund run by Marc Lasry, a long-time supporter of the Clintons and a major Democratic Party donor. She is currently pursuing graduate studies and working as a fund raiser for the Clinton Foundation.

Jenna Bush Hager, who is one year younger than Chelsea Clinton, graduated from the University of Texas in 2004 with a degree in English. According to Wikipedia:

Before leaving Washington, D.C. in Summer 2006, Hager taught at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School for a year and a half. She took a leave of absence from the Charter School teaching position to work at a shelter as part of an internship for UNICEF's Educational Policy Department in Latin America, specifically in Panama. After her internship for UNICEF, Hager returned to her teaching position at the charter school in Washington, D.C. She currently works as a reading coordinator at a school in Baltimore, Maryland, and contributes a monthly news story about education for the Today show.

She is also the author of Ana's Story: A Journey Of Hope, which chronicles her experiences while working for UNICEF in Latin America, and a children's book, Read All About It!, which she co-authored with her mother Laura Bush.

I'll leave it to the readers to draw their own conclusions about the values, goals, and priorities of the Clinton and Bush families. In the interest of fairness perhaps I should point out that the Prescott Bush family has been a member of the East Coast leisure class since the 1940's; Bill and Hillary Clinton obviously have aspirations to become members of the elite Gold Coast / Hamptons cliques, and are working as hard as they can to pull all the strings and grease all the palms necessary to accomplish that goal. Maybe that accounts for the difference. Still, how anyone can spend their entire political careers playing advocates for the poor, while quietly and steadily working to join the richest of the rich, is simply beyond my understanding.

"Simply beyond my understanding" shows that you don´t believe in the absolute depravity of man. As Abe Lincoln said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

For a long time, the Clintons and their "talk out both sides of their mouth" cohorts have pretended to care about "children and the poor" when their actions show that nothing could be farther from the truth.
Whenever I hear a liberal (normally a Democrat but not always) talk about the defending the poor, the homeless, the black man, the Indians, the whoever, I think "Hypocrite" and "where´s the soap to wash out his or her mouth for lying."
Somebody´s mama didn´t raise them with moral values. They learned to say whatever it takes to get whatever they want.

Well, the Clintons have spent a good part (not all) of their political careers BEING, not "playing," advocates for the poor.

As far as their actions being "beyond your understanding," Mr Laprarie, just add that to the very long list of things that fit that description. Lots of people, the Clintons among them, who are very rich, spend a great deal of time advocating for the poor. But as your snooty, pathetic, class-envy-filled comment contrasting the "Prescott Bushes" and the Clintons makes clear, you'll never understand why, it appears.

.... (Mr) Mezvinsky (Senior) was .... a one-man crime wave. In 2000, after examining his business deals since 1980, prosecutors said that they uncovered elements of fraud in nearly every one.

.... In March 2001, (Mr) Mezvinsky was indicted and later pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 charges of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud ....

Good God Almighty but what kind of monsters can we expect to be the issue of the mating of the the son of that creep and the bass-mouthed daughter of the recidivist, treasonous, lying, looting, co-serial-rapist Billy Bubbah Blythes? ("Cli'tons") or of Missus Blythe and that other felon, the bass-mouthed Webster Lee Hubbell?

What's it like being so hate-filled? Does the enmity manifest itself in medical symptoms, like heartburn or chronic lower back pain or something?

Or is it more that others see you as bitter, angry people, feeding on itself until you get an ulcer, or migraines, or turn to drink or drugs to relieve the stress of your unreasoning hatred of the CHILD of your political enemy?

As the father of two daughters, Mr Tea, I empathise with both the Clintons and the Bushes. Each couple has a daughter for whom they wish to "ease the way." One is interested in education; one in finance. Each family has pulled strings and called in favors, I assume, to (1) keep their daughter out of trouble, and (2) help their daughter get ahead in her career.

Both the Clintons and the Bushes have done what any parents would do. I would do the same. So would any Dad on these boards who's worth a shit.

I think Chelsea deserved a great wedding heck if her parents can afford it why not? It could not have been easy on Chelsea living in the whitehouse in her early preteen years with the media constanly making comments about her and SNL making fun of her. Every girl goes through a akward stage and most at 12-16 it is not easy.She a beautiful women and deserves to have this day! Congrat's Chelsea and Marc.